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Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Online

I just saw a New York Times article that I had to comment on. The piece, by Tara Parker-Pope, asked the question: “Is the Internet making teenagers do more dumb things than ever?”

Now, it’s easy to rationalize that teens are gonna do stupid stuff no matter what. So why blame the Internet? After all, most of us have had to pass through that “watch me do something I’ve only thought through for a second-and-a-half” stage. But Parker-Pope asserts that the attention-drawing klieg light of sites such as YouTube and MySpace ups the ante and propagates even more dangerous choices. And that makes some sense, too.

The article includes some anecdotal stories centered around online videos, one of which involves a kid lighting a basketball on fire and then accidentally ending up with second- and third-degree burns all over his body. And, since I hadn’t scanned any random YouTube videos in a while, I went online to see if I could find the flaming basketball vid.

Turns out, I had my pick: There were more than a hundred entries in the flaming b-ball category. One kid set a gasoline-soaked ball on fire. Kicked it. Set his shoe and sock on fire. Flailed around while stripping off his burning shoe and sock as a friend stomped on the now fiery patch of ground at his feet. And it all took place about three feet from an open 10-gallon gas can. Whooey. Hello, Mensa society?

But we’re not just talking about just fiery orbs o’ sport. Other random vids showed a kid with giant floats firmly tied to his feet who jumped into a pool and immediately flipped upside-down to be suspended helplessly underwater. (Thank goodness the camera wasn’t just set up on a tri-pod.) Another teen attempted a back-flip on solid ground and landed on the top of his head, knocking himself out cold and probably giving his future grandchildren migraines. The ranks of such video entries stretched into the thousands, and every one I saw seemed to be a teen kid with a “watch-me, watch-me” look and not a single lick of sense.

The Times article quotes an adolescent medicine specialist from the University of Wisconsin named Dr. Meg Moreno who states that one of the distinguishing characteristics of kids is a sense that everybody is closely examining everything they do. “A really normal part of that is the perception that you’re on stage, and that everybody is looking at you,” Moreno said. “But for kids today it’s a different world they’re growing up in. It’s a world where there really is that audience.”

And that can make a big difference, it would seem.

All right, I see that raised eyebrow. No, I’m not an anti-tech nutter with a tin foil hat and a “The Internet Eats Brains” T-shirt. I’m just saying that if you happen to see your kid walking toward the backyard with a video camera and a tub of kerosene … it might be worth a look see.

Bob Hoose is a senior associate editor for Plugged In, a producer/writer for Focus on the Family’s Adventures in Odyssey, a writer of plays and musicals and one-half of the former comedy/drama duo Custer & Hoose. He is a husband, father of three and a relatively new granddad.

Have something to say? Leave a comment.

Anonymous

More than 1 year ago

Comment by McMurreysGirl:

My brothers seemed to do a lot of dumb and dangerous things without a video camera (such as accidentally setting the neighbor's yard on fire, or walking on top of a huge barrel as it rolls downhill, or perfecting the art of falling down the stairs to scare people who came to the house, or hanging on to the ceiling fan while it's spinning around, or...etc), but I can see how nowadays with fame and glory to gain (other than just having a cool story to tell your friends), those things, along with more dangerous stunts, could be done more often and with more fervor.

The internet is just like television and movies and all other forms of media - they have such potential for good; but alas, they have been corrupted by the sinful nature of mankind and now hold so many evils that the good is all but obliterated.

Anonymous

More than 1 year ago

Comment by TanwenFireElf:

Is it really just teens that do more dumb things because of the Internet?

Anonymous

More than 1 year ago

Comment by Nyxie:

This doesn't surprise me at all. Web videos are just the latest venue for showing off humanity's stupidity; as many will agree, they are not the first. Before we had YouTube, we had the Darwin Awards website (which provides many a cautionary tale) and America's Funniest Home Videos (which proves that just about anything can become a long-running TV show). The difference between YouTube and these other things, however, is that people intentionally do stupid things because of the attention. Most of the stuff you will find on America's Funniest Home Videos are misadventures that just happened to occur when there was a video camera around. I'm all for taping the strange moments that life throws at you, but making things happen so you can post them online? Absolutely not!

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Good media discernment is about guarding our eyes and hearts before we watch or listen. And it's also about grappling with the entertainment we do see or hear. That's why the Plugged In Blog is devoted to guarding, discussing and grappling.